Onaway Area Schools try to tackle budget

Spring is a busy season for school districts, full of board meetings and budget decisions.

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By MARK SPENCLEYmark@cheboygantribune.com

Cheboygan Daily Tribune - Cheboygan, MI

By MARK SPENCLEYmark@cheboygantribune.com

Posted Apr. 11, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By MARK SPENCLEYmark@cheboygantribune.com

Posted Apr. 11, 2013 at 12:01 AM

ONAWAY

Spring is a busy season for school districts, full of board meetings and budget decisions.

For Onaway Area Community Schools, the budget planning process is just getting underway. With little state funding information to go on, school officials have been holding off on any potential budget decisions.

“Things are pretty slow as far as that goes,” said Rod Fullerton, OACS superintendent. “I know there are some schools out there that are already pretty far into the planning but, we’re kind of just getting started with that stuff.”

For Fullerton, the process starts with the drafting of several potential budgets. One will reflect the district’s situation should the Board choose to do nothing, one reflecting minimal cuts, and one representing deep cuts.

“I’ll prepare these scenarios and present them to the board during a meeting,” Fullerton explained. “They’ll decide where we’re going and what we’re doing with all of that.”

Even coming up with potential budget scenarios will be a difficult prospect for Fullerton this spring. Information on the state’s plans for education funding has been slow to trickle out of Lansing.

“I’ve heard everything from a break-even, to slight cuts, to much deeper cuts,” Fullerton explained. “We just don’t know right now, which makes this tough. That’s why I’ve been holding off on doing too much.”

Though the state is being tight-lipped with funding information, schools have to approve a balanced budget by June, whether they have all of the information they need or not.

“Over the next couple months we’ll have to make all of those decisions,” Fullerton added. “We have to have our budget in by June, no matter what.”

What could help OACS this year is the potential for several teacher retirements.

According to Fullerton, a teacher or two has retired in each of the last several years, giving the district some budget leeway that otherwise would not be afforded. Retirement-eligible teachers are at the top of the pay scale. When they retire and are replaced with new teachers, it results in a net savings for the district.

“It looks like we could have a couple retirements this year,” he said. “We don’t know for sure yet, but it looks that way. We had one retirement last year, which really helped us.”

Teachers will notify the district of their intentions by sometime in May, though there is no official requirement to do so.

“They usually tell us in May to give us a heads up, but there is nothing telling them they have to,” he said.

Page 2 of 2 - OACS will have some budget decision to make this spring, though its still uncertain how impactful those budget decisions will be.

“The next month or two are going to be critical for finding all of that information out and making decisions on what we need to do,” Fullerton added.